LaHood: Sequester will disrupt air travel even though we get more money for fewer flights now

posted at 1:21 pm on February 25, 2013 by Ed Morrissey

We picked on CNN’s Candy Crowley last week, so it’s only fair to highlight her effort here in demolishing Ray LaHood in his attempt to push the Nightmare on Sequester Street hysteria, FAA edition. Air travel will go haywire if the sequester cuts take place, LaHood warns, but Crowley notes that (a) even with the sequester, the FAA will have more money in this year’s budget than last year’s, (b) the cuts bring the FAA back to their 2008 funding level in real dollars, and (c) the level of domestic flights has dropped by 27% since 9/11. So why the hysteria over the sequester? (via Eliana Johnson at The Corner)

Pressed by Crowley, who pointed out that, while domestic flights are down 27 percent from pre-9/11 levels, the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget has increased, LaHood responded, “Budgets go up and down.” …

LaHood placed the blame for the current state of affairs squarely on the shoulders of the Republicans. “I’m a Republican…they need to come to the table with a proposal, which frankly they haven’t done,” he said, “while the president has, the Republicans haven’t.” In fact, Congress in May passed a bill that would replace sequester’s cuts to defense with cuts to domestic discretionary spending programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. Asked for his response to LaHood’s remarks, Senator John McCain, who appeared on the show after him, said, “Shame on Ray LaHood.”

Over the past week, President Obama has painted a picture of impending disaster, warning of travel delays, laid-off firefighters and pre-schoolers tossed out of Head Start. Conservatives accuse Obama of exaggerating the impact, and some White House allies worry the slow-moving sequester may fail to live up to the hype.

“The good news is, the world doesn’t end March 2. The bad news is, the world doesn’t end March 2,” said Emily Holubowich, a Washington health-care lobbyist who leads a coalition of 3,000 nonprofit groups fighting the cuts. “The worst-case scenario for us is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens. And Republicans say: See, that wasn’t so bad.”

In the long partisan conflict over government spending, the sequester is where the rubber meets the road. Obama is betting Americans will be outraged by the abrupt and substantial cuts to a wide range of government services, from law enforcement to food safety to public schools. And he is hoping they will rise up to demand what he calls a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction that replaces some cuts with higher taxes.

But if voters react with a shrug, congressional Republicans will have won a major victory in their campaign to shrink the size of government. Instead of cancelling the sequester, the GOP will likely push for more.

That’s the problem with crying, “Wolf!” When the deadline passes and has all the impressiveness of Comet Kahoutek, it’s going to be even more difficult to keep arguing that another round of budget cuts will be The End Of The World As We Know It.

Since this whole thing was Obama’s idea, I’m assuming it was yet another one of his political threats, invented out of his delusions to pick a fight with the expectation that he’d get a big truckload of free lollipops and mushrooms if he pushed the delusion long enough.

Instead, his idea has been allowed to reach fruition and he’s now panicked: his hand was called.

Obama played a sick hand and he got caught with his sick hand. You can tell he’s quite cornered now with and by his own delusions by the level of angst he’s showing in his “trauma talks about impending doom” — doom he created himself that he expected would be mere ticket-to-get and instead turned into his own ticket-to-lose.

“The good news is, the world doesn’t end March 2. The bad news is, the world doesn’t end March 2,” said Emily Holubowich, a Washington health-care lobbyist who leads a coalition of 3,000 nonprofit groups fighting the cuts. “The worst-case scenario for us is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens. And Republicans say: See, that wasn’t so bad.”

How very telling. Budget increases are only slightly less than in the past, and it is the End of the World for lobbyists.

“The good news is, the world doesn’t end March 2. The bad news is, the world doesn’t end March 2,” said Emily Holubowich, a Washington health-care lobbyist who leads a coalition of 3,000 nonprofit groups fighting the cuts. “The worst-case scenario for us is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens. And Republicans say: See, that wasn’t so bad.”

…it’s going to be even more difficult to keep arguing that another round of budget cuts will be The End Of The World As We Know It.

I don’t think it’ll be that difficult. The SRM will just start emphasizing all the bad economic news they have been spinning or ignoring. The unemployment rate will leap above 8% again. GDP growth will be negative again and we’ll suddenly have a “Republican Sequestration Recession”. Every piece of bad news that comes down the pike will be blamed on the sequester. It’s already happening.

That’s the problem with crying, “Wolf!” When the deadline passes and has all the impressiveness of Comet Kahoutek, it’s going to be even more difficult to keep arguing that another round of budget cuts will be The End Of The World As We Know It.

It’s the Y2K hysteria all over again. If you trust what the lazy rat-eared moron says (and no sane person would) then come friday, out transportation infrastructure will be in gridlock, planes will be falling out of the sky due to lack of air traffic control, schools will be without teachers, and fire departments will be without first responders. Funny how they never get around to mentioning what Obama is doing to the Defense Department.

The wench who “moderated” a Presidential debate from the lap of one of the candidates challenge her guy’s people? The wench who just happened to have back up support of the lies being told by one of the candidates (and essentially lying herself in doing so)?

Of course she doesn’t challenge him in any substantive way. She merely helps him get the lies sorted out into one giant coherent lie.

Of this trio, Walker is the Good. Facing the challenge of governing a blue state and with perhaps the nation’s most fractious political scene, Walker in the past week rejected Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and proposed a permanent rate cut in the state income tax, targeted at the middle class. His budget would cut state income taxes, allow no general sales tax increases, and holds down increases on property tax bills to no more than 1 percent a year for median value homes.

Walker called for dramatically expanding the school voucher program in the state as well, for any sizable district which has two schools receiving D or F grades. And despite a state commission recommending hiking gas taxes and fees to pay for transportation costs, instead Walker said he would sell or lease state properties and power plants to make up the difference.

“The good news is, the world doesn’t end March 2. The bad news is, the world doesn’t end March 2,” said Emily Holubowich, a Washington health-care lobbyist who leads a coalition of 3,000 nonprofit groups fighting the cuts. “The worst-case scenario for us is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens. And Republicans say: See, that wasn’t so bad.”

LaHood placed the blame for the current state of affairs squarely on the shoulders of the Republicans. “I’m a Republican…they need to come to the table with a proposal, which frankly they haven’t done,” he said,

The hysteria strategy has Democrats worrying as the budget deadline approaches. What happens when the end of the world arrives — and it just keeps chugging on like before?

Simple, Bronco Bama takes credit for it, and now that he’s fulfilled his promise to cut spending in such an unprecedented way, it’s time for the Republicans to come to the table on comprehensive tax reform. With much praise from Chuck Todd.

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that sequestration, for lack of a better word, is good. Sequestration is right, sequestration works. Sequestration clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Sequestration, in all of its forms; sequestration for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And sequestration, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

I will post again…the “disaster” is a 2.7% cut in budget over 10 years…only 2.7%.

right2bright on February 25, 2013 at 1:44 PM

It is a 2.7% reduction in budget, not a cut. Even with sequestration we will still be spending more this year than last. We are cutting nothing. We are reducing the rate of spending.

The real cuts have to come from the entitlement programs but the rat-eared wonder and his party refuse to cut one real dime from the programs that provide all that free stuff to the parasites, moochers, welfare queens, and takers that make up their core constituency. They want the GOP to pull that trigger so they can rail against the “heartless Republicans” that would have old people eat dog food or something.

In any case, let us stop using the word cut when that simply isn’t where we are at.

The quote from Emily the lobbyist is telling. She represents 3,000 (!) nonprofits that are fighting the cuts. They want to stay at the trough and get their full portion of slops.

I’d love to see the total of compensation for Emily and the officers and staff of those 3,000 nonprofits. I’d bet it’s a very large number.

“Non-profit” is an IRS term of art. More descriptive is a vision of pigs at the public trough. Instead of having a job where they produce something and add to the GDP, this army of functionaries is tasked with grabbing as much of other people’s earnings as they can.

It’s a great gig, no doubt. Especially when you don’t have to make the case for public donations, but can simply collect transfer payments from Government tax levies. Sweet!

lol I love it! These idiots are panicking at the thought that the “cuts” will happen and everybody will realize it’s NOT the end of the world…or even that painful. Of course, there hasn’t actually been any real cutting. But…baby steps. What needs to happen is that the people wake up to certain realities.

Hey cement head, are you willing to stake your job, benefits and retirement bene’s on this. If it doensn’t happen you retire and lose all benefits. How about that you lying POS.

rjoco1 on February 25, 2013 at 2:24 PM

Practically speaking, though, LaHood gets to determine whether it happens or not. What’s to stop him from furloughing air traffic controllers to ensure that flights are delayed?

It would be like the manager of your local McDonald’s telling you, “Next Saturday at noon, there will be such a slowdown in my store, it will take 15 minutes for you to get a Big Mac. I’ll bet my job on it!” I wouldn’t take the bet, because he could order most of his employees to go on break and thus make what he said happen.

We picked on CNN’s Candy Crowley last week, so it’s only fair to highlight her effort here in demolishing Ray LaHood in his attempt to push the Nightmare on Sequester Street hysteria, FAA edition.

You mean her effort to be an objective journalist?

This is Crowley’s response to the Debate Commission saying they made a mistake with her. Nothing more, nothing less. Her questioning here should be the norm and is only worthy of praise when placed up against her debate performance. As a stand alone performance, this not worthy of praise.

She gets a break-even card now from the elites for evening the score from her awful debate “moderating”, despite that 40,000,000 more people watched her single-handedly destroy Romney and simultaneously her credibility. She deserves only the credit for actually doing her job.

“Objective” journalists bounce back and forth between cheerleading for the left and being objective, and we are supposed to praise them when they are objective. If the number of times they are objective is equal to the number of times they cheer on left wing talking points they get a pass, despite the fact that their audience will be smaller for their objective moments with 99% certainty. Insanity.

This administration really is made up of some of the worst people in our nation. What scum to sit there and constantly lie their a$$e$ off knowing full well the sun will come up tomorrow. This is dangerous. Our media needs to be destroyed. They let these people get away with lie after lie. The House better stand firm. Let this go through, don’t buckle, tell Obama and his army of demagogues to fluke themselves.

In any case, let us stop using the word cut when that simply isn’t where we are at.

Happy Nomad on February 25, 2013 at 1:55 PM

Cut in the proposed/estimated budget (if we even had a budget)…quick nit picking.

You dilute the message…the cut or reduction or whatever is only 2.7%, over 10 years…that’s the issue, it is almost nothing.

Of course your brilliant post dismisses that and you replace it with semantics…that is why we are where we are at…you miss, like most, the important point, it’s not the “definition”, it’s that whatever definition you use, it’s minimal and will have minimal effect.

Two weeks ago I was in the Indianapolis airport, arriving between 6 and 7PM. There were—wait for it——EIGHTEEN TSA agents standing around doing absolutely nothing. Well, they weren’t do nothing, they were all standing around in groups talking to one another. Not a passenger in sight. Granted, they need to have enough personnel on hand to meet the uneven spurts of departing passengers, but I am at that airport at least two times a month and it is always over-staffed. On my outbound leg there were four TSA types just to check ID/boarding passes—but only one of them was actually working, the other three were standing around talking.
Go ahead, let the sequestration happen, and we’ll see how few government employees we really need.
And, why is it that it’s always the jobs that most affect the public do they threaten to cut first? Couldn’t they furlough some back-room do-nothing employee? Or would that be too sensible?

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Boehner and the House, don’t submit a budget that deals with all of this stuff and then tell Obama, they’re not signing on to any cr’s they’re not backing off on the sequester, but they are willing to give the administration flexibility, within the departments, to cut some areas more than others.

There is nothing that can’t be dealt with in the budget process so the Republicans should insist on a budget, period.

What is it that they hold over these people’s heads to get them to go out in front of the camera and reporters and lie through their teeth to the citizens of this country? The ones at the top have to know it’s a political ploy and must believe in the socialist agenda so much that it doesn’t bother them at all to lie anymore. Talk about selling your soul to the devil.

The GOP is completely unprepared for the sh*t-storm the media is going to unleash on them when the sequester kicks in. The Obama administration will do everything possible to maximize the negative impacts with a complicit media playing it up. I hope to high heaven the GOP has a LONG list of wasteful spending they can use to dole out news items in response to the sob-story torrent we’re about to see. How hard can it be to prepare a huge list on the wasteful spending on green energy? On ‘sensitivity training’? On grants from the national science foundation and national endowment of the arts? Wasteful State Department spending? Forced purchases of the Chevy Volt? Welfare fraud? Subsidizing Hollywood, etc.

The military is not LOSING money – they are actually getting a litel more, just not as much as they would have if Sequestration weren’t an issue.

EVERY movie up for an Oscar, every ‘hit’ that is out now, received millions of our tax-dollars in ‘subsidies’…while on top of that we are paying $13+ a ticket…’Jango Unchained’, for example, received over $8 million.

Obama says illegals will flood across the border (Helloooo – we’ve got over 12 million here now – tell us somethig NEW!)

The ‘Fear Monger’-In-Chief’ & his ‘Armageddon’ Administration is once again trying to ‘punish’/’eliminate’/viilify the GOP by simultaneously engaging in the policy of action through fear & manipultation of the American people.

Much like firing a gun behind a herd of cattle, Obama seeks once again to create a ‘stampede’ of ignorant voters who will in turn condemn the GOP & demand they give in to Obama’s demands.

Forget that Sequestration is OBAMA’S PLAN…
Forget that it is not as bad as it is made out to be…
Forget that, like a terrorist, once his demands have been met (taxes were just increased) he comes back again and again operating the same way (fear & intimidation) and making the same demands…..

Biden said it best – the American people are tired of being tired, & Obama’s constant rule through fear-mongering is exhausting.